Beck pleads with migrant parents

Conservative radio host Glenn Beck directly addressed the parents of children in Latin America on his show on Tuesday, begging them in a monologue with Spanish captions not to send their children to the United States.

“I come to you as a dad … keep your family together,” Beck said on his program on Blaze TV. “Please would you consider doing the hard thing as well would you resist the temptation to flee or break up your family, please don’t hand your child off to a smuggler in the middle of the night.”

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While they may have been told America is the “land of milk and honey,” Beck said the United States is starting to experience some of the same problems countries in Latin America are going through, pointing to Chicago as an example. But, Beck conceded that if he was in the same situation, he’s not sure if he would do anything differently than parents considering sending their children illegally to the United States. During the monologue, Beck choked up describing what has happened to some children who have attempted the journey to the United States, only to die along the journey. He said those that do make it are living in deplorable conditions.

“I can’t sleep at night thinking about your on daughter and so I and about 150 volunteers and multiple semi-trucks are going down to our border and we will see your child…and we will care for them,” Beck said.

Beck has raised more than $2 million in food, toys and supplies that he plans to bring to children being held on the southern border this Saturday, along with members of Congress.

But while he’s raising money for the undocumented children, Beck cautioned listeners he is not an advocate for illegal immigration. At the end of his monologue Beck said that he’ll comfort the children by telling them they’ll be going home — deported from the border.

“I will tell them soon you’ll be back home, you’ll be back with mom and dad,” he said.

On July 8, Beck announced that he would be traveling to McAllen, Texas on July 19 with members of Congress and faith leaders to administer aid to some of the recent influx of children that have crossed the border.

“If you go online … you’ll see that there’s a lot of people who are very upset because they think that I’m going to be encouraging people to come here and that’s not true,” Beck said of the public’s reception to his announcement to aid undocumented children.

He continued, “Now [the children] are here, so what do we do? Well, while Washington is arguing, I think we have a personal responsibility for mercy and to be there for them.”

“I find it more than ironic that the guy who people have always said hate people who are different and hates illegal aliens and everything else is raising money and going down,” Beck told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly on Monday.

But, according to Beck, this aid is neither political nor aimed at altering his reputation.

“It’s evil what’s happening to these children all the way around, and then to have them used for political purposes,” Beck said Monday. “I don’t care if it’s the left or the right that’s doing it, it is wrong, it is shameful, it is un-American and it’s not the Christian thing to do.”